A Little More Than This (Discontinued)

Chapter 13

Mei was tired, and hungry and pissed. She, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had been standing out in the cold since dawn. She had, of course attempted, to sleep in knowing that Kakashi wouldn't turn up for a while, but he had kicked her out of the house and told her to wait, forbidding her to have anything to eat.

'I'm going to skin Tou-San alive'

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Orochimaru stood back, his snake-slit eyes widening slightly. Kabuto, who had been close behind him, looked around his masters back before falling to his knees.

'No! It can't be!! Not Mei! She's was too young!!' Raced through both male's head. The snake-sanin stared down at the grave, his eyes reading over the weather-worn grave. He could barely read age of death, so he knelt down and rubbed the grave, wiping away some slime it had gathered over the years.

Mei Hoshigaki
"Death boarders upon our birth,
And our cradle stands in the grave"
Born- 17th of January
Died-16th of January aged 6.

"C'mon Kabuto, thisss iss a time ssenssitive missssion" Orochimaru muttered. "How long? How long has it been there?" Kabuto asked, not raising his head.

"Ssix yearss"

Kabuto looked up and stared at the man before him. Kabuto didn't need to calculate the numbers, he knew that she had died the ungodly age of six. He stared at the grave, wishing it would disappear and the little Tangerine would appear and smile like she normally would.

"T-that means a year after we left she, she died!" Kabuto cried out. "Kabuto, we mussst leave. Let'sss go" Orochimaru ordered. The sliver haired nin nodded pulling out a small wrapped present and placed it at the grave's base.

'Goodbye Mei. I hope you're happy up there'

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It had been going on for some time, Naruto and Sasuke had been attacking head-on and failing miserably. Sakura had been running around to keep herself safe.

'Kinda like a medic'

But Mei was the only one who seemed to have a clue at what was happening and had set some elaborate traps which Kakashi had discovered and taken advantage of. Causing Mei to smirk and watch the others to be harshly smacked around.

'This is gonna be a long day'

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Mei giggled to herself quietly, they had utterly failed the test. The team was hopeless, and she knew that Kakashi was peeved.

"You're in luck I won't be sending anyone back!" Kakashi sighed. Naruto and Sakura beamed and started yelling, Sasuke was quiet but a pleased look flashed through his onyx eyes. Mei, on the other hand, flinched at his masked harsh tone.

"Yes, you are going to be dropped from the program, permanently" Kakashi said, his eyes flashing a sorry towards his tangerine daughter. Naruto and Sakura's jaws dropped and Sasuke stared at Kakashi, whereas Mei simply flinched again.

"But I will give you another chance. If you can get the bells off of me after lunch then I'll make you ninja...... Oh and Naruto can't have one bite" Kakashi commanded, before disappearing to eat his own lunch.

Mei waited until she knew he hadn't tricked them before grabbing her chopsticks and sitting in front of Naruto.

"Open your mouth Baka" she hissed, offering him some rice. "But Sensei said he couldn't have any!" Sakura hissed back. "No Mei's right, if we don't feed him he'll bring the rest of the team down and he'll bring the rest of us down" Sasuke replied, offering his own food.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't want to cause Mei trouble, so refused to open his mouth. Mei sighed in frustration and pinched his cheek making him gasp in pain, while his mouth was open she stuffed his mouth full of rice and meat, glaring at him and hissing at him to eat.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?!" A thunderous voice asked. "Feeding a teammate Sensei" Mei replied curtly, not even looking up at him. "And why would you do that?" Kakashi asked, some anger fading away.

"B-because the f-four of us are o-one!" Sakura stuttered. "The four of you are one?" Kakashi asked. Mei gave a defiant nod as Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke gave smaller nods.

"You pass"

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Hidan stared down at the small grave, a brush and a bucket of water in his hands. He pulled a face and silently cursed at the rest, making him come to this place.

"Assholes, aren't they Mei? They should know by now this place is too good for my presence" He hissed at the grave. As if talking back, the wind lifted slightly and pushed some stray hairs from his face.

"Of corse you don't think that...... Thanks Sweetheart" he replied, mumbling the last part. He took out the rag from the bucket and squeezed the water from it, before washing the grave, making the slime run down the carved words.

The sun gave a happy twinkle, no it wasn't raining. He smiled at that. "Yeah bet you like this, it's been too long since we last cleaned this thing" Hidan said, beaming brightly again. He picked up the brush and swept away the fallen leaves before picking up the bucket and dumping the remainder of the water on the headstone.

The clouds darkened slightly and Hidan sighed lightly, "sorry Sweetheart, but it was to get rid of the rest of the grime". The clouds lightened slightly and he smiled up at the sky.

"Damn it Jashin, why'd you take her away so young?" He asked the 'God' he blamed his own insanity. He sighed lightly and cursed to himself, slamming a fist into a nearby tree.

"I pissed off the way of the world so I got punished, but so did everyone else!! It's not fair!!" He scolded himself, cursing silently at his own stupidity. "We miss you so much! It's just not fair!" He whimpered, traitorous tears brimming his eyes.

"I want you back Sweetheart! It's not fair!! We all need you back!! It's not fair!!" Hidan sobbed into his hands. He sat there for an hour spilling nonsense about fairness.

'I want to see you just one more time'